SKILL SCAM: Charge Sheet Filed in ACB Court with Naidu as Main Accused

Vijayawada: The chargesheet has been filed by the AP CID in the ACB special court in the state Skill Development Corporation-Siemens Project scam here on Thursday.

The main accused are Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu, former minister K. Atchannaidu, former MD and CEO of APSSDC Ghanta Subba Rao, former director of APSSDC Dr K. Lakshminarayana and officials of Siemens, Designtech, PVSP Skillar etc.

The chargesheet mentioned that Naidu orchestrated the conspiracy to misappropriate funds allotted for the skill development programmes. Accordingly, he along with former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, ordered the floating of a corporation named AP state skill development corporation, “bypassing the Cabinet and deviating from the existing rules.”

“Naidu maintained complete control over APSSDC by appointing Ganta Subba Rao as its MD and CEO and also as secretary to AP government for the department controlling APSSDC.”

“Naidu, with the assistance of then minister Atchannaidu, issued orders approving the establishment of Siemens Skill Development Centres. The estimation of the project was accepted at a hyper-inflated rate of `3,300 crore. Both Naidu and Atchannaidu created a facade of government order as if the Siemens and Designtech would contribute 90 per cent of the 3,300 crore project as grant-in-aid and the AP government would contribute only 10 per cent of the cost.”

“Contrary to such an order, Naidu and Atchannaidu gave approval to an MoU, stating that it was the government of AP that was giving a grant of `371 crore to Siemens and Designtech to set up skill development centres, and that there was no obligation on the technology partners to contribute anything towards the project.”

“The officials related to Siemens and Designtech siphoned off a large portion of the ‘371 crore in conspiracy with Naidu and Atchannaidu.”

“Further, Naidu and Atchannaidu got a GO issued, stating that the project cost was estimated at `3,300 crore and the Siemens and Designtech would provide 90 per cent as grant-in-aid and GoAP to contribute 10 per cent (`371 crore). The wording in MoU was manipulated to reflect as if GoAP/APSSDC were providing `371 crore to Siemens and Designtech for setting up skill development centres.”

“Naidu has instructed officials to release `371 crore in advance to M/s Designtech. Then chief secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, then principal finance secretary P.V. Ramesh and then special secretary finance K. Sunitha made notings in the related files regarding the objections to the release of funds in advance.”

“Ultimately, investigations revealed that Siemens and Designtech did not spend even a single rupee from their resources nor did they provide any discounts on their proprietary software.”

Independent investigations carried out by the central agencies and global head office of Siemens including the director general of GST Intelligence Pune and IT wing Mumbai and Siemens global office revealed that Suman Bose, then MD of SISW, acted on his own. While Suman Bose and Vikas Khanwilkar used a network of shell companies to issue fake invoices without actual delivery of goods and services and siphoned off funds of over `176.27 crore.

The Siemens Industrial Software India Pvt Ltd’s legal counsel Amit Sehgal deposed before a magistrate, stating that the MoU deviated from the GO and did not mention about the 90 per cent contribution to be made by Siemens and Designtech.

Meanwhile, the enforcement directorate arrested Soumyadri Sekhar Bose, Vikas Vinayak Khandekar, Mukul Chanda Agarwal and Suresh Goyal and it provisionally attached properties amounting to `31.20 crore belonging to M/s Designtech Systems Pvt Ltd.